QUICK SHOTS: The Sharpshooter #5: Night of the Assassins by Bruno (Len Levinson) Rossi

 Ah, the twisted world of Johnny Rock came calling. It'd been a minute since I cracked open a volume of The Sharpshooter, and that's a wicked shame. The saga of The Marksman/The Sharpshooter/The Assassin is one of my favorites of the 70s Men's adventure offerings. Because this is where things get weird.

The books are sloppier than Don Pendleton's work. They are hastily thrown together pulp cranked out by pure id and a few days of hazy typing. Most of them sorta work in some sort of dreamscape where things just happen. They seem like bar room tales told over an ever-increasing amount of beer, where parts of the tale don't quite add up and lucky coincidences run rampant. That all depends on who's writing them of course.  

This one's the work of Len Levinson, an all-around terrific storyteller who spins the most level of all of these paperbacks. Len gives Johnny Rock more personality than the other writers who worked on the series, who paint Rock as a raving psycho. I mean, he's a raving psycho here too, but he'll have a few human emotions too. Rock's got the usual vigilante trappings, the mafia killed his family, and he goes out kills the mafia. Don't mess with something that works. 

In Night of the Assassins, he finds himself in Miami and sets out killing various mob dudes. In-between his a-murderin' Rock gambles a little, plans his hits a lot and has some fun with various woman who seem very willing to bed down a half-crazed stranger. Along the way's there's scuba raids on casino boats, long-range sniping, machine-gunnin,' dumb cops, dead mobsters and some rough complications. All in all, it's a good time between the covers. Len makes Rock interesting and you don't mind just spending time with him as runs around Miami, that isn't to say that the action is fast and furious when it happens. This one's got some great set-pieces (one's on the cover) and quick action. 

Like I said, Len can write. You'll probably never be disappointed if he wrote it. This series and its sister series' can be a mixed bag and unfortunately their all getting pretty pricey these days. I used to buy 'em for a buck or two in used bookstores and I've even bought a couple at that truck stop. Now most of them will run $5-$10 and some of the choice ones, the ones written by Len or Russell Smith will go for crazy prices. That's what happens when you become a legend.

And my now traditional sign-off, my first novel Gunpowder Breath is available on Amazon as an eBook!

QUICK SHOTS: Mace #6: Year of the Boar by Lee (Len Levinson) Chang

    I needed a little shot of martial arts adrenaline with a hint of 70s sleaze, so I cracked open a book I've been saving for a special occasion. I do that every now at then with author's whose work I really like. There are only finite kinds of books like this, I can't just go to the drug store, or a truck stop and buy a brand-new Nick Carter: Killmaster novel, can I? So, the unread one become a little more important. I mean I can never read Shark Fighter or The Death of the Fuhrer for the first time again, right? Least with Shark Fighter, I have a pile of unread Len Levinson books waiting for me. 

    The book of course is Mace #6: Year of the Boar by paperback legend Len Levinson. Len (may I call you Len?) was really one of the best writers in the 70s Men's Adventure market. His series work on Super Cop Joe Blaze and The Sharpshooter, and his stand-alone thrillers and more literary works are all very entertaining reads. He's one of those writers like say, Michael Avallone, that can't help but inject a little of themselves into their work and it's for the better. 

    Too many of the paperback writers of the time didn't actually want to be writing a Sharpshooter book or a Peacemaker book. So, they wrote the books in a perfunctorily way and they either come off a little bland or often they read like a private eye novel because that's what the writer wanted to write or maybe Raymond Chandler was the only "fun" writer they ever read. But Len throws it all in when wrote these paperback assignments, the action comes quick and often, the characters have a real 70s New York vibe to them (when in New York) and they have a nice conversational town, like Len is just telling you a nice and violent story. 

    Now, the Mace series is the product of the 70s post-Bruce Lee kung fu boom, if you want to know more about that I suggest you go over to Steve Carroll Writes where Steve has a nice overview of the phenom and how it affected the spinner racks. Mace is the product of the, uh, warped mind of Joseph Rosenberger (if you've read a Death Merchant you know what I mean) who was working for Manor doing The Murder Master series at the same time. I haven't tackled a Rosenberger Mace book yet; I understand that they are a rough a read as a Rosenberger book could be. I have to be a special mood to tackle one of his books. All that being said, I have tons of those books, so why am I complaining? 

    Mace #6: Year of the Boar is Len's only entry in the series, it didn't last much longer but it's still a shame. I understand in Rosenberger's entries Mace is more of a CIA dude. Here he's simply a Martial Arts Master who runs a school and lives by his strict code and when the Mob tramples on his code Mace springs into action. It's a simple story but that's one of the things I really enjoyed. It played like a down-to-Earth-story Men's Adventure story, but Mace himself is nearly a superhero with his Chi being able to cure bullet wounds in no time and all his super-heroic bullet-dodging kung-fu fighting. And there's TONS of fighting in this book and once the Mob imports an evil Martial Arts Master to kill Mace, the whole thing is set to boil of. All of that plus arson, mob hits, attractive lady reporters, Chinatown vibes, fun made-up guns, and a little philosophy too.

    Like always in Len's work the side-characters a well-rounded in their brief appearances. Len pretty much always sticks with the protagonist of his book most of the time which sounds simple, but too many Men's Adventure books spend too much time with the bad guys or side-characters. Len spends just enough time to understand their goals and to show how evil they are. Mace himself is a bit of cipher, but that's pretty in line with what a Martial Arts Master would be, but he's a fun enough protagonist who likes to chew on matchsticks.

    This is one FUN book. Seriously, this probably tops my previous favorite Martial Arts paperback, Kung Fu Master Richard Dragon: Dragon's Fists as my all-time favorite now. It's got a shorter title to type too. Len's work is top-shelf and finding the old paperbacks have become a pricey affair once the work got out, luckily a fair amount of them have been reprinted and are eBooks, so they are easy to get. Go out and buy some RIHGT NOW. 

Top Ten Stand-Alone Men Adventure Novels

Recently there was a big tornado scare at my house, it looked like it was going to Mucho-trouble. While getting the house battened down, I looked over at my "good" shelf, the bookshelf with the rare books and the cherished books. Panic struck and I had to squirrel away some choice books that I wouldn't want to be without. These aren't exclusively those books, but some are. Luckily the tornado never showed up and my books (and family of wife and cats) were fine. But it got me thinking about top ten lists and savers.

So, I decided to make up a little list. Now, I saved series titles for another list in the future, just focusing on stand-alones and series hopefuls. You know, where the weird stuff lies. Since I covered most of these books on the blog, it's a little primer to all the old reviews. Compiling the list was interesting as patterns emerged. I like private eyes; I hate Nazi's and love the 70s.

So, here's a list, the numbers don't matter. I can split hairs that much. 

1. Shark Fighter by Nicolas (Len Levinson) Brady

Len Levinson is a legend in the field. All of his books are incredibly enjoyable, especially his entries in the Sharpshooter and Ryker/SuperCop Joe Blaze series. But this is his crowning achievement. It's a wonderful mash-up of 70s obsessions, an Evel Knievel-style stuntman, Jaws-born shark frenzy, drug running, sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. It's a wild nail-biter when Taggart (the titular shark fighter) agrees to fight a shark on T.V. but he's also tangled up with women and non-shark related danger. It's a perfect rollicking manly tale.  

2. Dragon's Fist by Jim (Denny O'Neill) Dennis

Denny O'Neill wrote a lor of comic books and not so many novels. Also, most of those novels featured established comic book characters. This one is actually the origin of a comic character, Richard Dragon Kung-Fu Master who worked his way into the DC universe, thought never really used to his potential. Denny is a fantastic adventure writer (his take on Batman in the 70s is a favorite and a lot of the times feels very James Bond-inspired) and Dragon's Fist is Kung-Fu cinema on the page. It's my favorite over-all Kung-Fu book. It's a thrill-ride full of tons of fighting, a little introspection and characters you want to spend time with.  

3. Death of the Fuhrer by Roland Puccetti

I recently wrote a whole post about my love for this one, so I won't get too far into the weeds with it. But this is my all-time favorite Men's Adventure novel, as it has everything I like and its totally bananas. I suppose if your hero is out to kill Adolf Hitler and then fuck-up some Nazi shit, I'm there. Plus, there's brain transplants, sex baronesses, dark castles, motorcycle escapades. What more could you want in a pulp novel?

4. Cut by Jerry (Laurence James & John Harvey) Bronson

James Laurence and John Harvey, two British pulp writers in the 70s (though Harvey went and got respectable later) teamed up to produce the most distilled hard-boiled, grimy private eye tale I have ever read. It's a slim volume where P.I. Frank Regan uses his .44 Magnum (sometimes .45, two writers give 'em a break) to break up a snuff film ring. This is a dark, twisted Grindhouse movie on the page. It's got sleaze dripping off of it when you pull it off the shelf. It's also mean and violent. It moves so fast because it seems like the two writers were just trying to one-up themselves the whole time. So, it's the good stuff. 

5. Blaster: The Girl with the Dynamite Bangs by Lou Cameron

Lou Cameron is a writer with a tone of books to his name, mostly westerns. This was an attempt to make a "blue-collar" Men's Adeventure protagonist for the working-class Schmoes who read these books back in the day. So, its stars a construction demolition expert. I got three neighbors who do that same thing. Boomer Green is the titular Blaster who's down in South America tangling with old Nazi's and new Nazi plots. He keeps a .25 pistol in his shirt pocket and a lady on his arm. The occupational change is a nice switch from the various vigilantes, spies and mercenaries that usually star in these books. and you know what? Explosions are cool.

6. Terror at Boulder Dam by Vince (Mike Newton) Robinson

This one comes out of the Mafia-front publisher Carousel and is one of the first works by noted adventure writer Mike Newton who later wrote books in the Executioner and Destroyer series. This is another private eye tale, where Las Vegas detective Brad Kendall comes up against a plot to blow up the (you guessed it) Boulder Dam by a group of KKK-like dickholes. There's plenty of barfights, showgirls, and gun-filled showdowns. It's a full-tilt boogie.

7. Dachau Treasure by Anthony DeStefano

Anthony DeStefano is mostly known for his kickass Mondo series of martial books. He was also a painter who did work with paperback covers. Dachau Treasure stars Stosh Jacobs, his eye-patch and his .44 Magnum. Stosh hunts down Nazi's and kills them after his experience in the Dachau concentration camp as a child. He's after the titular treasure to return it to the rightful heirs and to, again, kill Nazi's along the way. It's a wonderful slice of grimy pulp with action, gore and of (yet again) Nazi killin' along the way. 

8. The Sundance Murders by Peter McCurtin 

Peter McCurtin burned up the typewriter back in the 70s, penning way too many tough guy books to count. And that's all in-between being an editor at Belmont-Tower. Somewhere in there he wrote The Sundance Murders. it stars Berger, a sleazy tabloid reporter who keeps a cut-down Walther P-38 under his coat and has a nose for trouble. He's a classic McCurtin character. He drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, the ladies love him, and he likes trouble. It's pretty much a modern western, complete with terrible stereotypical depictions of Native Americans, which is a bummer. But Berger is a fun character, and I'm convinced he was originally the main character in the novel The Camp, which was started by McCurtin and finished by Len Levinson

9. Diamondback by James Reasoner 

Diamondback is a one-and-done (actually never printed until much later) Men's Adventure series by the always readable James Reasoner. Reasoner's novel Texas Wind is one of my favorite private eye novels of all time. This one feels like an 80s action TV show that never was. Tom Sloane is suddenly an ex-cop whose itchy trigger finger had gotten him in trouble. After some shenanigans he finds himself in the employee of a rich dude who wants his own action hero to take down the bad guys. So, Sloane gets guns, a battle van and takes on a paramilitary organization all by his lonesome. The Texas setting sets it apart from the rest of the pack of heroes at the time. It's a real shame this one didn't have multiple sequels. 

10. A Run in Diamonds by Alex (Bill Pronzini) Saxon

Bill Pronzini is a master mystery writer, who's rather soft-boiled series about the Nameless Detective is just wonderful, even if he doesn't shoot or punch people. With, A Run in Diamonds, Pronzini was tapping into his love of the pulp Black Mask by writing a well-seasoned crime tale about Carmody, a bodyguard/smuggler living in Majorca. He gets in involved with beautiful women and dangerous deals. This one reads like an updated 50s Fawcett Gold Medal paperback and was supposed to be the first in a series, hence the pseudonym. Carmody got a little bit of a comeback when Pronzini had the book reprinted (and edited) in hardback with a couple of short stories. 

Quick Shots: Bronson #2: Streets of Blood by Philip (Len Levinson) Rawls

 

The Bronson books are sorta infamous in the world of M.A. fiction for their blatant Charles Bronson/"Death Wish" swiping. There was a fair share of "Death Wish"-riffing back in the 70s, but none were so bold to steal Charlie's name for it. The series was started by an unknown author, but the next two (and final) were written by Len Levinson and Joseph Chadwick, respectively. I've never tracked down the first book, but from what it sounds like a total weirdo wrote it and it's pretty much all rebooted here with #2. Manor Books ran a tight ship, people.

Len Levinson is a helluva writer. I've never been disappointed with a book with his name on the cover or hidden behind one of those "house names." He can seemingly write anything (often does) and while staying within the framework of series or style he's writing in; he can inject enough of his own personality to bring something special to the book. "Shark Fighter" is not only one of my top two favorite Men's Adventure novels, but also its grown to be just one of my favorite anything's. Before you ask, my other favorite Men's Adventure books is "The Death of the Fuhrer" by Ronald Puccetti. 

So, Len (can I call you that?) yeah, so Len just kind of did his own thing with "Streets of Blood" and besides sharing the same character name with #1: "Blind Rage" this is a new start for the series. Chadwick apparently followed Len's book for #3. There you go folks who HAVE to start with the first book in a series, if you happen to have "Streets of Blood" but not "Blind Rage," do yourself a favor and immediately read this AWESOME BOOK!

Richard Bronson is BRONSON. He's an engineer whose wife and kids were murdered in the first book who's taken to being a street level-vigilante. He's got a Browning Hi-Power (noice) with a silencer, a sawed-off shotgun and years of training as a Green Beret in 'Nam to get by with. And boy does he. The action in "Streets of Blood" is sporadic, but it's interspersed with fun character work. And when the action does show up it is told cleanly and violently. The main crux of the novel is that Bronson eventually kills the wrong mugger and ends up with a Mafia contract on his head. Meanwhile a badass cop is on his tail, also on his tail is the foxy model that lives next door. Problems, huh?

I read this one in nearly one sitting, the pages just flew by. Bronson is a fairly nice guy who a vigilante and you can see why the other characters stick their necks out for him. The mafia bad-guys are solid mafia-bad guys, and the muggers are appropriately slimy. There's solid doses of 70s throughout and the patent crazy side-characters in a Levinson book. It's interesting because Len's work on The Sharpshooter series treads similar ground, but Bronson is a lot different. Whereas Johnny Rock a/k/a The Sharpshooter is mostly a crazed killer, Bronson is pretty level-headed...except for the killing bad dude's thing. 

Unfortunately, this is one of those EXPENSIVE paperbacks that I review here. I came up lucky a while back and found my copy for fairly cheap online. Somewhere in the $10-$15 range. I also remember I received it during a move, and it got delivered to my old house and I had to go do a little "porch pirating" to retrieve it. A clandestine mission for sure. A lot of Len's stuff has been reprinted and is easily picked up, so at least go read "Shark Fighter" or his new memoir "In the Pulp Fiction Trenches." Or anything really.

Quick Shots: Shark Fighter by Nicholas (Len Levinson) Brady

The art of the cash-in book or movie is something that always peaks my interest. "Jaws" was a massive success in 1975, it caused a tidal wave (nice little pun there) of imitators, some of them quite good, others very bad. But who am I to judge? I like Jaws 4: The Revenge. But I LOVE "Shark Fighter" by Len Levinson. I rarely read a book twice, but I did just that to write this review. I shit you not, I bought my copy of the pretty hard to find original paperback at a truck stop that sells used books to truckers. I've found some good stuff there, I guess truckers really like the blood 'n' guts like me. I read it in like one siting and enjoyed the hell out of it. So, the other day I just sort of pulled it off the shelf to take a gander at it and found myself reading it all over again. 

"Shark Fighter" star Sam Taggart former frogman for the Navy and present shark hunter and professional beach bum. He's a chain-smoking sex machine who can't help himself and always puts his head in the lion's mouth. He'll piss off anyone, the cops of the small island he calls home, his various lady friends, he's friends with pimps, prostitutes and will do just about anything for a buck including diving for sunken drugs for gangsters. You know, a good guy. His mainline is hunting sharks for meat for the fancy hotels on the island to sever to their guests. It's a living, keeping him in pot, booze and keeping his boat afloat. Things all change for him when he gets hired to fight two sharks on TV for a two million bucks and also falls in love.

This is a loose-structured novel, the first half is just hanging out with Sam on his various hard-boiled escapades, bouncing from danger to sex to boozing and smoking and back again. Normally this might make me loose interest in a novel, but Levinson is very good at making you wonder what will happen next in a rollicking bar-room stale sort of way. Even when the little mini-episodes of the novel seemingly finish Sam's dropped quickly into another jam. Levinson also gives all the side characters enough little quirks and personality to quickly establish exactly what kind of people they are, knowing how pleasantly evil the cops on the island are builds up a nice sense of danger for Sam, they might kill him or skin him or drop an anvil on his head at anytime. The sex is spicy and the action shows Levinson's work under Peter McCurtin at Belemont writing Sharpshooters and Marksman's and the like. This is really what a pulp-paperback is all about, sure things don't always hang together nicely and some characters that seem important just drop from the narrative without much thought, but isn't that life?

The Camp by Jonathan Trask but Actually Peter McCurtin and Len Levinson

One of my first reviews on here was "The Sundance Murders" by stalwart writer of ass-kickers Peter McCurtin. The book introduced Berger a hard-boiled reporter like they don't make anymore. A drunken cut-down Walther P-38 muckraker who travels to the desert and kicks up shit and ass. It was a novel after my own heart. I noted that it very much seemed like a first in a series or an installment in a series but sadly Peter McCurtin was a busy writer and editor at the time churning out his own work, ghost-written work, and editing great series like John (Ben Haas) Benteen's Fargo and everything in-between. So, I guess poor Berger got lost in the shuffle.

Jonathan Trask was Peter McCurtin, but he was mostly Len Levinson for this book. Len Levinson is a fantastic author with paperback-cred longer then your arm, working on series like "The Sharpshooter," "Ryker," "Joe Blaze" and creating  super-spy "Butler" and kick-ass W.W.II tales of "The Sargent" and "The Rat Bastards." Not to mention westerns and stand-alones of all genres. He like McCurtin is an author you can trust to give you a good time. They both seem to understand what their audience wants, their books are lean and fit with no filler and colorful characters. They do have completely different styles and voice, its fairly easy to point out either of their work even if their name isn't on the cover.

So, here's the rub. I think "The Camp" started out as a Berger novel. McCurtin wrote the first chapter, it's really clear that it's his work, it's got a lot of his ticks, old movies on TV, being more morose, heavy drinking etc. etc. The hero is now named Phil Gordon but it it starts roughly the same way with out narrator talking to us about himself. Gordon/Berger explains that he's a roving reporter who packs a Walther and ain't afraid to use it, that they work for a tabloid paper etc. etc. It's nearly word-for-word for a paragraph. I got totally deja-vu. Was this my long lost 2nd Berger novel? Well, yeah I sorta of think it is. It's a Frankenstein book with the two authors narrative styles being quickly bolted together, because after the McCurtin chapter Levinson's behind the wheel and it's his free-wheeling action/adventure with wiseacre humor peppered in. Gordon stops being McCurtin's character and becomes the slightly unhinged, slightly necrotic Levinson character. He's a happening guy with a sweet Porsche, he's good at his job, ex-army and always on the look out for trouble and women. The kind of guy you want to read about.

The Camp's long lost brother?

The plot is real nice I can see why it was saved from either being unfinished or forgotten by McCurtin and handed to Levinson who was producing some of the best work in the Belmont-Tower line. Basically Gordon goes to hang out with his old Native-American buddy in the Maine woods and finds out that there's a mysterious army installation who may or may not be responsible for the disappearance of his nephews. They look into and find the remains of tortured hippies in the camp and then nearly get killed. Gordon's now all in, he goes back home, makes some friends in high places and boinks with a attractive women within a few hours of meeting her and sets up his mission to get the story and hopefully find his friends nephews. It's got some heavy 70's political thriller vibes in the middle, a little "Parallax View," and "All The President's Men" mixed with man-on-a-mission pulp. Gordon gets help from a friendly general and sneaks into the ultra-right-wing-death-to-all-that-disagrees-with-us-murder-camp and gets a guided tour by a randomly gay army officer. Here's the only minor problem I had with the book: Gordon's in the camp for a day, sees what he's going to see  (torture chambers, murdering hippies for sport, etc. etc.) and then raises hell with grenades, rifles and the prisoners of the camp and gets the hell out. Some more time inside the camp with some build up might have been nice but then the result is the same. The ending is total awesome 70's (probably still now) paranoia with a real nice button on the end.

All in all its a fine little paperback thriller, full-tilt and lean with enough character and surprises to spend a pleasant few hours with. McCurtin and Levinson are some top-shelf guys at writing this stuff, buy anything with their names or pseudonyms on it.  There's a lot of hack-work in this genre/type of book (mostly on the best-seller list) and I long for the days of sub-200 page roller-coaster rides. Looking around after reading the book I was mildly surprised to see the price on the second hand market. It must have had a short-print run and Belemont books always seem to be pricey anyway. I got mine in a lot of books on ebay chock full of expensive McCurtin creations. It was a good chunk of change until you worked out how much the books cost individually. I guess the moral of the story is to buy books like things at Costco: IN BULK.